If you are facing drug charges in a case where a drug sniffing dog or a police officer’s assertion that he or she smelled marijuana was the reason that you, your vehicle, or your property was searched, refuting the reliability of drug dogs and officer smell tests may play an important role in your defense. Even though both drug dogs and an officer’s sense of smell are permitted to serve as the basis for a search under Texas law, numerous studies have found both methods to be unreliable predictors of the presence of drugs.

For example, a pair of studies suggests that there are two fundamental flaws with relying on trained dogs to detect drugs. Both a study which was conducted by the Chicago Tribune and a study which was published in the Journal of Animal Cognition by Researchers from the University of California at Davis suggest that drug dogs often alert in areas where drugs are not present and have not been present. The frequency of false alerts is so high that the dogs are actually wrong more often than they are right.

The same two studies also pointed to something even more disturbing regarding drug dogs’ abilities to sniff out illegal substances. We all know that dogs are incredibly sensitive to even the most subtle feelings of the people that they have close relationships with. Drug dogs have strong bonds with their handlers, and when those handlers believe that drugs are present in a situation, the dogs are likely to alert even if there are no drugs in the area. Also, if a dog’s handler has any racial bias, the dog that they are handling will often alert on people of the race that the handler is biased against, whether or not drugs are present.

Police officers are allowed to stop or arrest and search people if they believe that they smell marijuana. As you can imagine, this results in quite a few searches. Two studies that were published in Law and Human Behavior examined the reliability of the officer smell test. One study found that officers who stand at a driver’s window and assert that they can smell marijuana that is supposedly in the trunk of the vehicle are not actually able to detect that odor from that position, because of other smells that are normally present during a roadside traffic stop, such as diesel fuel. The second study examined an even more improbable situation, where officers assert that they can smell marijuana in the chimney fumes from a marijuana growing facility. As one might expect, the study found that this simply does not happen.

Fortunately, Texas courts are becoming increasingly aware of the problems associated with relying on drug sniffing dogs and police officers’ noses to detect the presence of controlled substances. In 2010, the highest criminal court in Texas overturned a conviction based on identification of the suspect by a drug sniffing dog. Winfrey v. State, 323 S.W. 3^rd 875 (2010)

If the search that led to your drug charges occurred because a drug sniffing dog alerted near you or a police officer believed that they smelled marijuana near you, that search may have been invalid. A knowledgeable East Texas defense attorney can help you to present your best possible case to the court and help you to achieve the best possible results under the circumstances. To learn more, call Longview criminal defense attorney Alex Tyra today to schedule your free consultation. We can be reached at (903) 753-7499, or you may visit website to submit a convenient online contact form.

Did you know that more guns are stolen in Texas than in any other state?   It makes sense, if you think about it, because Texas has a larger population than many states. Not only that, but when you consider that many Texans own firearms, it is not really a surprising statistic. Earlier this year, the President ordered the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms to conduct a study and report the number of firearms that have been reported lost or stolen on a state – by – state basis. Nearly nineteen thousand guns were reported stolen or lost in Texas last year. Of course, there is no data available on the total amount of firearms that were lost or stolen, because many more guns are stolen than are actually reported as stolen.

Stolen guns pose a greater threat to the public than guns that are purchased legitimately. Many guns that are stolen from private individuals or businesses are later used to commit crimes, and many of these guns are recovered at the scenes of the crimes. If your gun turns up at the scene of a crime, you may be facing even bigger problems than whether or not you will get your stolen gun back. When you take precautions to prevent gun theft, you not only reduce the chance that one or more of your guns will be stolen, you reduce the chance that one or more of your guns will make it into the hands of a criminal who uses it to commit a crime.

Your first line of defense against criminals stealing your gun and using it to commit crimes is to keep it stored in a secure place. In case you are wondering, a locked vehicle is not necessarily a secure place, especially if the gun is within view of people looking inside of your vehicle. A gun safe really is your best bet, especially one which can be mounted to your wall or floor. Not only do gun safes reduce (and practically eliminate) the chance of your guns being stolen, they help to keep your family and children safe, too. In addition to keeping your gun locked away in a safe place, it is important that you keep a file or notebook of detailed information about your guns, including pictures, serial numbers, and detailed descriptions as well as service records. This information can be used to file a report if one of your guns does get stolen, and can help you to prove that the gun is yours if it is eventually recovered. One other way that gun owners can prevent gun theft is to be very careful about lending your firearms to anyone. If the borrower does not keep your gun in a secure place, other people whom you did not authorize to borrow your gun may have access to it and it may end up in the wrong hands.

If your gun is lost or stolen, it is a good idea to report it even though Texas law does not currently require that you do so. Many stolen guns that are used to commit crimes are left at the crime scenes, where they are discovered by police. Reporting your gun as stolen can help you to clear your name if your stolen gun is later used during the commission of a crime. It can also increase the chances that your gun will eventually be returned to you.

Gun theft is a big problem in Texas. If you live in East Texas and your stolen gun has been used to commit a crime, contact The Law Office of Alex Tyra, P.C., for a free consultation at (903) 753-7499. Phone calls are answered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.